The violence reportedly ended when club patrons attacked and subdued the gunman.
Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, say at least five people are dead and at least 25 others are injured after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub named Club Q late Saturday night.
Cops say the suspect walked in just before midnight and almost immediately started firing.
Authorities have identified the suspect as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, according to CNN. Aldrich reportedly used a long gun. Two other rifles were found at the scene.
The violence reportedly ended when club patrons attacked and subdued the gunman. He is now being treated at a nearby hospital. Police say they did not shoot at him. Investigators are now working to determine if this was a hate crime.
In a statement, President Biden addressed the tragedy saying in part, “While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that gun violence has a particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation,” he started.
“We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all forms. I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, but we must do more. And we must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot tolerate hate.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay man ever elected to that office, called the attack “horrific, sickening, and devastating."
“My heart breaks," Polis said in a statement, "for the family and friends of those lost, injured, and traumatized in this horrific shooting.”
The shooting came before Sunday’s Transgender Day of Rememberance, which marks American lives lost to violence against the trans community.
GLAAD also acknowledged the heinous Colorado shooting. The group’s president, Sarah Kate Ellis said in part,
“This unspeakable attack has robbed countless people of their friends and family and an entire community’s sense of safety. You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified across social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this one.”
Agents with the FBI’s Denver office are assisting in the investigation.
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